Social Studies Praxis Prep Jeopardy!

U.S. History

World History

Geography

Economics

Government

100

The term “Cold War” refers to the

(A) race between the United States and the Soviet Union to claim ownership of Antarctica

(B) contest between the United States and the European Union for economic domination in the West

(D) competition between the Soviet Union and China for the resources of the Pacific Rim

Option (C) is correct. The term “Cold War” is used to describe the tense relationship that developed between the United States and the Soviet Union in the years immediately following the Second World War. During the Cold War, both the United States and the Soviet Union sought to extend their economic, diplomatic, and, at times, military influence in many parts of the world. Beginning in the late 1980s, dramatic changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe led to a reduction in U.S.–Soviet tension and the end of the Cold War

100

Japan and Germany, although being badly damaged in World War II, have since grown to be among the strongest economies in the world. All of the following have attributed to their growth, except:

(A) Decreasing unemployment rates matched with increased wages.

(B) Oversupply of exports from decreased consumerism.

(D) Receiving military and financial support from other countries.

Option (B) is correct. Consumerism grew rapidly for both Japan and Western Germany immediately after WWII, helped by car manufacturing, increased real income, and outside financial investment.

100

Which of the following terms refers to the language and culture of those French subjects who, expelled from Canada during the Seven Years Wars, settled in southern Louisiana during the French colonial period?

(A) Mayan

(B) Cajun

(D) Creole

Option D is correct. Louisiana Creoles are a Louisiana French ethnic group descended from the inhabitants of colonial Louisiana before it became a part of the United States during the periods of French and Spanish rule.

100

In one hour, Amanda can type five pages of a report or she can make 10 sandwiches. The opportunity cost of typing one page of a report is

(A) 2 sandwiches

(B) 5 sandwiches

(D) 50 sandwiches

Option (A) is correct. The opportunity cost of typing one page of the report is calculated as the reduction in the number of sandwiches divided by the gain in number of pages typed. Therefore, the opportunity cost of typing a page is 10 ÷ 5 = 2 sandwiches.

100

The federal government can influence the policies of state governments through use of

(A) grants-in-aid

(B) the line-item veto

(D) separation of powers

Option (A) is correct. A grant-in-aid is money coming from the central government for a specific project. This kind of funding is used when the government and the Congress have decided that the recipient should be publicly funded but operate with reasonable independence from the federal government. This is a clear way to exercise influence over the policies of state governments. The line-item (B) veto pertains to the power of an executive (the president in the case of the federal government) to nullify or cancel specific provisions of a bill, usually budget appropriations made by Congress. Executive privilege (C) is the power claimed by the president and other members of the executive branch to resist certain subpoenas and other interventions by the legislative and judicial branches of government. It makes no reference to federal government influence over state governments. Separation of powers (D) is a model for the governance in democratic states, whereby authority is divided into branches or estates, each with separate and independent powers and areas of responsibility

200

Which President is commonly considered the architect of the Great Society?

(A) John F. Kennedy

(B) Ronald Reagan

(D) Lyndon Johnson

Option (D) is correct. The "Great Society" was a series of domestic programs aimed at eliminating poverty and expanding social welfare, primarily enacted during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson.

200

In which of the following fields did Islamic civilization most influence Europeans at the time of the Crusades?

(A) Music

(B) Theology

(D) Law

Option (C) is correct. At the time of the Crusades, when contact increased between Europe and the Islamic world, Islamic mathematicians were using sophisticated mathematical tools and concepts (algebra, zero, Arabic numerals) that were unfamiliar to Europeans. In the twelfth century, European scholars became more aware of and interested in the contributions of Islamic mathematicians, and they made this knowledge available to the West in Latin translations.

200

A watershed describes which of the following areas?

(A) the boundary created when two opposing ocean currents intersect

(B) the area between two mountain ranges

(D) a land area where water runoff accumulates and flows into rivers and streams

Option (D) is correct. A watershed is essentially the area of land that drains into a common body of water, like a river or lake, through surface runoff and groundwater.

200

Which of the following people would benefit most if the value of the United States dollar increased relative to the Japanese yen?

(A) A United States car dealer importing Japanese cars

(B) A Japanese tourist vacationing in the United States

(D) A Japanese baker buying United States wheat

Option (A) is correct. Appreciation in the value of the dollar results in a decline in the relative cost of importing foreign goods. An importer of foreign goods would thus benefit. U.S. goods would be relatively more expensive, so (B) and (D) are incorrect. (C) is also incorrect; a change in the value of the dollar would have no beneficial effect on a worker in the U.S. beer industry.

200

People who believe their political views are important, that government will respect these views, and that their views can influence political affairs are said to have a strong sense of

(A) political partisanship

(B) political alienation

(D) political efficacy

Option (A) is correct. The direct primary enabled individual voters to get around the system of entrenched party machine politics of the early twentieth century. The direct primary system allowed individual politicians to build power free from the encumbrances that the parties provided. Party organization and party leaders increasingly became less important and marginalized along with party principles and ideologies, as the identity of the candidate became the most visible factor. Voter registrations still tend to draw out ideological affiliation and self-identification as a Democrat or a Republican. Parties, however, have increasingly become less relevant as the ideological space they inhabit shrinks. All this comes at a time when issue-driven political action committees (PACs) and funding sources have continued to proliferate.

300

President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation declared free only those slaves who

(A) were living in the areas still in rebellion

(B) were serving in the Union armies

(D) had escaped to Northern states

Option (A) is correct. The Emancipation Proclamation freed only those slaves who were living in the states or parts of states still in rebellion. Lincoln feared that complete emancipation would cost the Union the loyalty of the border states (Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware), slave states that remained loyal to the Union. Moreover, President Abraham Lincoln did not believe he had the constitutional authority to declare free those slaves living in areas loyal to the Union.

300

Question: Which of the following events directly contributed to the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War in 1618?

(A) The signing of the Peace of Westphalia

(B) The defenestration of Prague

(D) The collapse of the Ottoman Empire's influence in Europe

Option (B) is correct. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) was primarily a conflict between Catholic and Protestant states in the Holy Roman Empire, but it also involved several other European powers. The direct catalyst for the war was the Defenestration of Prague in 1618. This event occurred when two Catholic officials were thrown out of a window of Prague Castle by Protestant nobles. This act was a response to the perceived encroachment of Catholicism by the Habsburgs, who were attempting to impose Catholic rule in Protestant Bohemia.

300

Question: Which of the following terms describes a large, natural, steep-sided lake formed by the collapse of land after a volcanic eruption?

(A) Loess

(B) Caldera

(D) Karst

Option (B) is correct. A caldera is a large, steep-sided depression or basin that forms when a volcano erupts explosively and the ground collapses inward. This typically happens after the volcanic magma chamber empties, causing the surface above to sink. The resulting caldera can sometimes fill with water, forming a lake, such as Crater Lake in Oregon.

300

Poverty as defined by the United States government is best understood as

(A) the index value of government services such as Medicaid and public housing

(B) the concept of relative deprivation and is based on changes in the distribution of income

(D) a concept based on lifestyle and measured on a sliding scale based on the needs of an individual

Option (C) is correct. The United States government in the 1960s set the “poverty line” as an absolute—the threshold below which families or individuals are considered to be lacking the resources to meet the basic needs for healthy living; having insufficient income to provide the food, shelter, and clothing needed to preserve health. The measure hasn’t changed much since then, with the exception of periodic adjustment for inflation, using the consumer price index.

300

The legal basis for the escalation of United States involvement in the Vietnam War was the

(A) declaration of war by Congress

(B) passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution by Congress

(D) mutual defense provisions of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Option (B) is correct. There was no declaration of war by Congress. However, Congress did pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which authorized the president to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.”

400

During President Dwight Eisenhower’s administration in the 1950s, the federal government promoted significant changes in transportation in the United States by

(A) establishing generous subsidies for urban mass transit

(B) sponsoring research to develop less polluting automobiles

(D) funding the establishment of a national railroad passenger system

Option (C) is correct. The construction of the interstate highway system was a major federal initiative of the 1950s, funded by an act of Congress in 1956. The federal government did not spend substantial amounts of money on research related to automobile pollution control, urban mass transit, or a national railroad system during this period.

400

Which of the following statements reflects the Confucian worldview that figured prominently in classical Chinese culture?

(A) Having faith in God will be rewarded in the afterlife.

(B) Life’s ultimate goal is to escape the suffering inherent in the endless cycle of death and reincarnation.

(D) Observing rules of proper behavior toward others will ensure social and political harmony.

Option (D) is correct. Confucianism teaches that the duty of mutually appropriate behavior in various interpersonal relationships is central to all human interaction. Relationships within the family, such as parent-child and husband-wife, as well as more general social and political relationships, such as elder- junior and ruler-ruled, all entail an expectation of proper behavior by either side. Just as the harmonious functioning of the family depends on parents treating their children with kindness and children treating parents with filial piety, so the harmonious functioning of the state depends on the ruler treating the subjects with benevolence and the subjects reciprocating by being loyal to the ruler.

400

In the context of atmospheric circulation, which of the following is the primary characteristic of the region known as the Hadley Cell?

(A) It is responsible for the creation of the jet streams in the upper atmosphere.

(B) It results in the development of deserts at 30° latitude due to descending dry air.

(D) It causes the deflection of ocean currents, influencing the El Niño phenomenon.

Option (B) is correct.The Hadley Cell is a large-scale atmospheric circulation pattern that occurs between the equator and about 30° latitude in both hemispheres. Warm air rises at the equator, and as it moves toward the poles, it cools and descends around 30° latitude. This descending dry air contributes to the formation of deserts, such as the Sahara and the Arabian Desert. The descending air creates high-pressure zones that inhibit cloud formation and precipitation, making these regions arid and dry.

400

If the tax rate for a single person with $25,000 in taxable income is 24 percent, and the tax rate for a single person with $20,000 in taxable income is 20 percent, the tax rate over this income range is

(A) regressive

(B) progressive

(D) revenue-neutral

Option (B) is correct. A progressive tax rate is one in which the tax rate increases as income rises. In this example, someone earning $25,000 a year is taxed at a higher rate than someone earning a lower income; thus, the tax rate is progressive.

400

With which of the following statements would both Thomas Hobbes and John Locke most probably have agreed?

(A) Government authority is created as the result of a social contract.

(B) Government must enforce religious law to prevent moral decay.

(D) Government must bend to the will of the educated minority.

Option (A) is correct. Hobbes and Locke both agreed that government authority was established through a social contract, although their views of the nature of that authority differed.

500

“I counted seven ministers all preaching at once. . . . Some of the people were singing, others praying, some crying for mercy in the most piteous accents.” This quotation describes group participation in an event that was most characteristic of which of the following?

(A) A meeting of the Pennsylvania Quakers during the time of the Revolution

(B) A frontier camp meeting of the Second Great Awakening during the early nineteenth century

(D) A convention of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union during the late nineteenth century

Option (B) is correct. Emotionalism and a high degree of mass participation were characteristic of the revivals of the Second Great Awakening. In comparison, a meeting of Quakers in the eighteenth century or a presentation to the Chautauqua Assembly or the Women’s Christian Temperance Union were likely to have been more restrained.

500

Which of the following groups was converted to Christianity in the tenth century C.E. by missionaries from the Byzantine Empire?

(A) Franks

(B) Visigoths

(D) Anglo-Saxons

Option (C) is correct. The Russian Grand Prince of Kiev, Vladimir I, converted to Christianity in 988 C.E. and ordered the conversion of his subjects in the Byzantine (Greek Orthodox) rite. The Franks were converted by papal emissaries from Rome. The Visigoths began converting to Christianity as they came in contact with the Roman Empire. Anglo Saxons were converted in part by Celtic Irish and Scottish missionaries and in part by Augustine of Canterbury, a missionary appointed by Pope Gregory the Great.

500

Which of the following best illustrates the definition of a functional region?

(A) A map showing Atlanta as a hub for Delta Air Lines

(B) An article describing the region referred to as the South

(D) An essay explaining the region known as the Bible Belt

Option (A) is correct. A functional region is defined by the particular set of activities or interactions that occur within it. A hub for an airline carrier is an example of the functional region.

500

An increase in the real interest rate in the United States relative to its trading partners will most likely result in which of the following?

(A) An increase in United States imports

(B) An increase in United States exports

(D) A decrease in the United States trade deficit

Option (A) is correct. If the real interest rate (that is, the interest rate adjusted for inflation) increases in the United States, foreign investors will transfer money to the United States in order to get a better return on investment. As a result, the dollar will increase in value relative to other currencies. The increase in the value of the dollar will, in turn, make imports to the United States cheaper, and consumers and businesses in the United States will, therefore, buy more imported goods.

500

Which of the following is an example of a concurrent power?

(A) The printing and coining of money

(B) The power to declare war

(D) The levying of taxes

Option (D) is correct. A concurrent power is a power shared by the federal government and state governments. Both the federal and state governments have the power to levy taxes. The powers described in (A), (B), and (C) are reserved to the federal government alone